Tuesday, March 31, 2009

The day after the race #1

I made these the day after the race. I took the scenic way home from Bedford, VA.
I wanted to checkout some of the trails used for Hellgate 100K race in December.
I think I might have still been a little tired. Enjoy. Be sure to watch #1 first.

Terrapin Mountain Video

Here is a video that I made a couple of hours after the race. "A tired mind is a terrible thing to waste".

Tarrapin Mountain 50K

The Miracle Weekend

Kenny Wheeler

This weekend was full of miracles for me. I had been fighting an injury of my lower left leg ever since HL in February. It hurt so bad during and after that race that I took a week off. Then I resumed running, but the leg still hurt. I tried a long training run and it really hurt. I took another week off from running. I road my bike all that week, then I ran 4-5 miles a few times the week of Terrapin Mtn. It still hurt. I really didn’t think I was going to be able to run the race.

In the motel room Friday evening I talked to God and asked him to please let me run on Sat. without much pain. He said don’t worry about it; He would take care of it. I knew at that moment that it was going to be OK.

Saturday morning I woke up and watched the weather report while I was getting ready. I was very happy that it looked like the rain was going to hold off. It was supposed to be 60 degrees and cloudy. I got to the Sedalia Center and waited on my friend Mark. He got there and asked me how my leg felt. I told him what had happened the night before. That it was not going to be an issue.

Mark is lot faster than me, so he said he would stick with me till the first aid station, and then he was going to take off. Just as planed we ran to the first AS. I only slowed down long enough to grab a few pretzels and took off down the hill. I kept looking for Mark. I even stopped and turned around a few times to look for him. I was afraid he had gone the wrong way, or that I had gone the wrong way. Finally he pulled up beside me. I asked him “where have you been? Did you try to eat all the food at the AS?” He just laughed and said he would see me at the finish line.

I ran to the next AS without anybody to talk to. When I left, there was a girl ahead of me. A friend or family member was following her up the hill, they were rubbing icy-hot on her calves. I caught up to her right after that person turned to go back to the AS. I commented on how good the icy-hot smelled. We struck up a conversation and ran together for the next few miles. When we hit the single track I pulled ahead of her.

During the White Oak Loop I was slowly catching up to two girls. Way before I caught them I could here them shouting encouragement to the other runners as they were coming at us. Most runners say encouraging words to each other as they pass, but these girls had so much enthusiasm. Not silly enthusiasm either, it was genuine and sincere. It was very refreshing running with them for a while. I called them my cheerleaders. When we got to a hill I pulled away from them. Because I was a little quicker going up hill and they were a little quicker going down hill, I would see them many more times throughout the rest of the day. Somewhere in that loop the icy-hot girl caught up with the cheerleaders and they pretty much stayed together the rest of the day.

I got to Camping Gap AS for the final time. Since all the runners had been through this AS so many times there wasn’t a very big choice of food left. Well like Horton says “if you want a better selection of food, run faster”. So I grabbed several saltine crackers and started up the hill towards Terrapin Mountain. When you are going up a hill that rugged and steep I would advise you not to try and eat saltine crackers. I believe I sucked more into my lungs than made it to my stomach. That ridge just kept going up and up for what seemed like for ever. I had not seen a soul since leaving the AS. It was so foggy and the trail up there was so narrow and the trees and bushes were so close that it was actually a little spooky. All of a sudden I almost run into a women coming towards me, I am a little startled, I am even more startled when I realize my friend Mark is with her. At this point I am just devastated because I realize there must be a turn around out there somewhere on this horrible ridge and since Mark must be many miles ahead of me it must be a long way to the hole punch that I had heard about. I had only gone a few yards when I see this plastic thing tied to a rock. I punch my bib twice (just in case one set of holes magically disappear) It is funny how your brain works when you are tired. I am really confused. I am trying to figure out what is going on when I suddenly realize that I have caught up to Mark. I take off after them.

The three of us head off the ridge together. The women mentions something about Fat Mans Revenge. Then we come upon this hideous obstacle that completely blocks the trail, so you have no choice but to descend into it. We make it through both of the obstacles. I punch my bib twice (you can never be too careful). Sometime while we are descending the mountain my cheerleaders and icy-hot girl catch up to us. There are six of us running together now. We stay together for a long time. Then Mark says his legs are locking up because of the steep descent and the rocks. I know he is slowing a little, but when we get to the last AS he’s not with us. One of the girls said he was probably quite a ways back because he had started walking.

We grabbed some food and filled our water bottles and headed back up the hill. We had gone about 4/10 of a mile up the hill when we saw Mark. He did not look good. At this point my competitive spirit took over. I thought that I might finally out run Mark. I was filling pretty good, so I figured on pushing as hard as possible to the finish. I was pulling away from the 4 girls, but then I started to worry about Mark. I started praying. “Lord help him to finish”. I was praying hard, but not slowing down. I still thought it would be pretty cool to out run him.

I was coming upon the last creek crossing when I heard someone coming up behind me real fast. I was totally surprised when Mark went by me like I was standing still. As a matter of fact I was so shocked that I lost my footing and fell in the creek. Before the finish my cheerleaders and icy-hot girl passed me too.

Afterwards I asked Mark what happened. He said when he got to the last AS he leaned on the table for support and ate and drank a lot. His legs were just dead. Then he said it felt like something just started happening to his legs and he could fill the life pouring back into them and he just took off. I believe that was when God answered my prayer for Mark.

God loves us very much. So never under estimate the power of prayer.

Thank you Clark for organizing a fantastic race and thanks to all the volunteers.

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Everything Is Going Smoothly

I ran 3 days this week and the leg fills good. Please pray for me Sat. morning that it won't hurt.
I will be heading to VA tomorrow. I will post again Monday.
Oh yeh here is a link for live updates for Sat. http://www.eco-xsports.com/livestats.php?race=3&year=2009

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Yea ! Got To Run Today

Johnna is still in the hospital. She will be there till they get her blood thinner levels where they want them.
Isaiah is doing great also.
Ran for the first time in a week today. 4.1 miles. Felt OK.
Mark and I will be heading to Sedalia, VA this weekend for Terrapin Mountain 50K. The weather forecast is for rain this weekend. I hope it doesn't rain much.
Found something cool today on you tube. Someone made a movie at last years Grindstone 100
Here is a link to the trailer. That will lead you to the other 10 chapters.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KETHolQboEY

Monday, March 23, 2009

What A Weekend !!!!!

There is nothing like a real dose of reality to put the small things in our lives into perspective.
A couple of weeks ago my 23 year old daughter had a little skiing wreck and sprained her ankle. Everything was progressing just fine till she started getting swelling up her leg. It eventually swelled all the way to her waist. She went back to see her family doctor and he got her an appointment with an orthopedic doctor on Tuesday. She went to see him and he got her an appointment with Vascular doctor for an ultra sound on Thursday. They found blood clots in her leg and had her admitted to the hospital immediately.
I don't believe any of us expected what was to come over the next few days. Thursday night and Friday were very uneventful, but then she started having pulmonary embolisms. That is blood clots started moving into her lungs. This is extremely dangerous. Thousands of people die from these every year. We never new when the next one on the move might go to her heart or brain. There is a procedure they can do that put a filter in the main vein coming out of the legs to stop clots from migrating out of the legs, but for some reason the doctor seemed reluctant to do it. Finally I guess he figured he had to do it before Johnna died. So they did the procedure Sat. morning and thank God she has been improving ever since.
I want to thank all the people that were praying for Johnna. I know that God answers prayers. I saw it with my own eyes.
Also in the very good news department!!!!! Our 3rd grandchild, Isaiah. He was born at 23 weeks gestation was taken off the ventilator Sat. and is doing very well. Another answer to prayer.
Now to the the small things. I haven't run all week. I've been riding, stretching and doing core exercises. Please continue to pray for me and my whole family.

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

I have an owie

I decided I was going to attempt to run the Liberty University Beast Series this year. I am not getting any younger and it includes a 100 mile race. I really want to do one of those before I get too old. http://www.extremeultrarunning.com/index.htm
I ran my second Walt Disney World Goofy Challenge in January. The Training for that went very well. The first race in the LU Beast was Holiday Lake 50K in February. I probably didn't train quite as hard as I should have. The last 10 miles was miserable because I developed pain in my lower left leg. I thought it might be a stress fracture, but it went away after 3 days. I took the week off, then started running without pain and I figured it was just some strange pain. Well I don't know now, because it came back with a vengeance on Sunday. So I took Mon. Tues. off and rode my road bike today. I think I am going to stay on the bike all this week. I am trying to get an appointment with a orthopedic doc.
I am going to suck it up and Lord willing I will run Terrapin Mountain 50K at the end of the month.




Here are some pics from Sunday. Thanks to Mark. My official photographer.








Monday, March 16, 2009

Sunday Long Run

The weather on Sunday morning was looking pretty dreary, but it was supposed to quit raining in the afternoon.
Me, Mark, Amy and her dog Sydney met at the trail head parking lot at Bluestone State Park at 1:00. We had a couple of "joggers" that were supposed to be there, but I believe the rain scared them off.
Just as predicted the rain did stop, but the trail was VERY wet and all the creeks coming off the mountains were pretty swollen. I had run this trail once before when it was wet, so I new we were all going to have wet feet the whole way. Mark and Amy were trying to tip toe around the water to start, but soon found out how futile that was. Amy only wanted to run 10 miles. Mark wanted to get 20 and I wanted to run 16. Amy and Sydney turned around after 5 miles and headed back to the cars. Mark and I continued on to Pipestem State Park and turned around there. That makes about 16.5 miles buy the time you get back to the cars. Mark wanted to explore another trail in the park so he went there to get the rest of his miles in.
I talked to Mark after he came out of the woods. I think he ran into more than he expected. Lets just say he thought he heard a banjo playing on top of the hill. Maybe he will expand on that on his blog http://cranberryrock-running.blogspot.com/
I hope to have some pics to put on here soon. I made Mark my official photogapher, because he has a small camera that he usually brings on runs anyway. I only have a big clunky camera right now.
The next big adventure is Terrapin Mountain 50K March 28. I can't wait.
http://www.eco-xsports.com/

Friday, March 13, 2009

Well I finally started a blog

I have been giving my friend Mark a hard time about him not doing updates to his blog, so I only hope that I will do a better job on mine than he does on his. http://cranberryrock-running.blogspot.com/
Mark is my best running buddy and my best friend. I used to see him at some of the road races. We started talking some. Then we both got interested in trail running. Over the last year or so we have explored a lot of trails and run a lot of really good miles together.

Amy is my other best running buddy. I know you are probably saying, how can he have 2 best running buddys? Well it is my blog and if I want more than 1 best buddy then I can.

I enjoy running trails alone. Just me an God out there enjoying His creation but I also really enjoy doing it with my buddies too.

We are going to run 1 of our favorite trails Sunday after church. From Bluestone State Park to Pipestem State Park. It is supposed to be Me, Mark, Amy, Kevin and Ryan. I am looking forward to it.